Clamp



.Fume B9, 1923.

E. s. FRENCH CLAMP Filed Jan. 2s

E/Jamur .45'. Fre ncl;

IN VBN TOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented June 19, 1 923.

ELSAMUE. s. FRENCH, or DENVER, coLoEAno;

i CLAMP.

Application led January 28, `1922. Serial No. 532,458.`

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, ELSAMUE S. FRENCH, acitizen of the United States, residing at Denver, in the county ofDenver and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Clamps; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in clamps and moreparticularly to a clampadapted to be used for holding two pieces ofmaterial, the ends of which are to be joined by a. miter joint, the mainobject of vthe present invention being the provision of a clamp wherebythe two piecesv of material to be clamped together may be moved apart,opening up the joint so that the glue or other adhesive material may bereadily inserted within the joint and the joint then closed togethertightly and retained in a rigid position while the glue sets or hardens.

Another object of the present invention is the provsion of a clamp ofthis character particularly adapted for holding articles which are to bejoined together, especially articles which are disposed at substantiallyright angles to each other whereby the two articles are fitted withinthe movable clamping members and then brought'together so as to assureofia perfect fit of the two partsy before the glue or adhesive materialis ap-L plied thereto. After the fitlias been assured` the two memberscan be then readily moved apart for applying the adhesive materiall andreturned to their close itting position and retained in this positionuntil the adhesive material. hasy set.

A further object of the present invention 'is the provision of a. clampof the above character which can be quickly and readily applied toarticles to be joined together and detached therefrom, and which initself isV extremely simple in construction yand operation and can beplaced upon the market at a comparatively low cost.

v IVith theabove and other objects in view, theinvention consists in thenovel features of construction, combination andv arrangement of-partshereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in the claims and shownv[in lthe accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a clamp constructed in accordance with myin'veIi-l'y l tion, illustrating two pieces of material ar ranged withinthe clamp and' fitted tightly together; y.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken through one of theclamping members onthe line 2-2 of F'ig. l; l Fig. 3 is a bottom planView;y

line 4`4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken on the Fig. 5 is a detail yplanview of the framesv and plates,

the melnbers being eliminated; y

Fig. 6 is a front elevation of a modifiedk form of clamp, and y l Fig. 7is a side elevationv of the form of clamp shown in Fig. 6.

Referring now more particularly tor the i drawings, in which likereference characters indicate like parts of t ing members and as each ofthese members are similar in construction, it will only. be'.

necessary to describe the particular conhe device, the nu#4 I merals 1and 2 indicate two similar clamp! struction of one member. Each of thel.,

clamping members comprises a body plate 3 havingformed upon one sidethereof the frame 4 which when the body plates 'are brought togetherinto overlapping relation,

as shown in Fig. l, are disposed at right angles to each other. Theseframe members are provided with longitudinal slots 5' adapted to receivethe shank portionA 6 of a threaded sleeve 7, said sleeve'being-m'ovablewithin the channel 8 formedby the frame portion'4, the top of said frame4 being sub-l stantially flat and preferably flush with the top of eachof the `body plates 3. Formed portion 6 isv4 a. clamp-Q ing plate 9, andin oider to impartjmove.

integral with the shank ment to `this plate 9 so that the same'may bemovedlongitudinally along y. the upper face of thev frame 4, ascrew 10"is threaded through the sleeve 7, one end of said screw being rotatablymountedy within the flange:

said channel. In order to impart movement to the screw l0, a fingerpiece 13 is formed upon the outer end of said screw member whereby `theoperator may readily rotated the screw l() and move the'sleeve 7alongthe v screw.

i Asillustrated in Fig. r1, the body plates 3k are provided withstationary clamping members 14 which are preferably disposed inalignment with the trames 4 so that when t the clamping members 9 arearranged within the trames 4 they will be disposed in alignment with thestationary clamping members 14. In order to insert the sleeve 7 throughthe top portion of the frames ,4, to a position within the channelportion 8,

a suitable opening 15 is formed in the top of each of the frames wherebythe sleeve 7 can .be readily inserted therethrough then the screw 10threaded through said sleeves and its reduced end secured within thebearing yformed in the flange 11 whereby the screw 10 may be manipulatedto move thek sleeve 7 longitudinally within the channel 8 yand vcausethe clamping member 9 to be y plates l3 toward this, one of l movedtoward and away from the stationary closed prior to applying theyadhesive ma? terial theretoror after the adhesive ma terial has beenapplied.

Means are provided for moving the body and away from each other in orderto apply the adhesive material to the endsof the strips which are to besecuredl together, and in order to accomplish the body plates isprovided with a straight slot (Figure 4) vin such a position that itwill be disposed directly at right Aangles to the joint which is to beformed and moifable within this slot isl a tongue 17 v to,y retain theplates in their proper relative position, said tongue being retainedwithin this slot by means of a plate 18 which is detachably connected tothe tongue 17 by` means of the screws 19 and arranged upon the outertacey or the plate in which the slot is formed, thus retaining thetongue 17 in its proper relative position within this slot so that theplates when movedy apart will movel in the proper direction.

vFormed integral with the under face ,of

i one of said plates, is a lug20 and connected to this lug is a'linlr21, said link extending in the same general direction as the tongue 17and connected to this link is an arcuate lever 22 which is pivoted tothe clamping `member 2, vas at28, the yother end of the lever beingpivotally connected as at 24 to a ,reciprocating rod 25. This rod 25 ismounted for sliding movement through the flange 26 formed on the clamp 2whereby upon reciprocating movement of the rod 25 the lever 22 will beactuated upon its pivot body members 3 are then 23 to impart movement tothe ylink .21 which will move the opposing body plate or clamping membertoward or away from the clamping member 2, so that the two ends of thematerial to be joined together may be moved toward or away from eachother.

In order to actuate the rod 25,11. cam member 27 is attached to theouter end ot said rod, said rod being eccentrically connected to saidcam so that when thecam is inthe position illustrated in Fig. 3, wherebythe major portion of the cam is contacting with the {iange 26, the rod25 will `be moved outwardly, thus drawing thektwo clamping memberstightly togetherL so that.

the pieces of material disposedy between the clamps 9 and 14 will havetheir ends tightly fitted together. Should it be desired to move theends of the strips away from each other Jfor applying the adhesive, the

cam 27 is actuated throughr the medium ot the handle v28 so asto bringthe minor portion of the cam next to the, flange *26,vr

causing the rod 25 tobemoved inwardly,

moving the link 2lgoutwardly4 and forcing the two vclamps away from eachother. In order to assure a positive Amovement of "the two clamps, acoil spring 29 is pr ovided` one end of which is connected to aperforated ear 30 arranged at the` inner corner of one' of the vbodyplates. and the other end of said springattached ,tothe inner end of therod 25 wheiebyv the tension of said spring will tendto impart movementto the and the link 21 when the cam27` lever 22 is moved to thevpositionshown in Fig. .5, From this it willl be apparent that after; the twopieces of material havebeen clamped between the two setsof clampingmembers 9yand 14 andc disposed at right anglesto each other so that thecorners will be'brought into close proximity, when the two clamp-l ingmembers are in thefpositionillustrated in Fig. 5, the'ends of the piecesmay beJ then brought tightly together' to assure ofia perfect tit or themiter joint by moving the camy member 27 lto'vtheposition shown in Fig..3. After the ends of vthe pieces *have been properly fitted togethervand it is desired to apply they adhesive material, the' moved awayfrom' each other, the movement being substantially perpendicular to thetwo pieceswhereby to provide suitable space between tlieends or thevpieces yfor applying the :adhesive: ma.- terial. After the adhesivematerial has been applied the joint is'then closed by .moving the twobody membersbackfto their riormal positions, as illustrated in VFigg,.rietaining the ends ofthe pieces of material tightly together until theadhesiveinateri'al has hardened or set. 4 y

In order to retain the body members 3 in various adjusted positionswith'respect to each other, the rod l25 is provided with a iis ist

plurality of notches 31 which are adapted to engage with the side of theopening through which the rod moves to retain the rod in variousadjusted positions.

In Figs. 6 and 7, I have illustrated detachable jaw members indicated at32 which may be detachably secured to the jaws 9 and 14:,

these jaw members 32 being provided with suitable slots 33, in which thelug 34 is adjustably mounted and retained in an adjusted position bymeans of the knut 25. These particular types of jaws are especiallyrequired due to the fact that many types of moldings and the like areconstructed in two pieces, or of irregular shapes, the lug34 engagingthe top of the molding to retain the same or the sections thereof intheir proper relative positions, while the miter joint is beingcompleted. These removable jaw members 32 may be detachably connectedtothe jaw members 9 and 14 in any suitable manner.

I claim:

l. A device of the class described including two clamping membersdisposed at an angle to each other, means for causing said clamps toapproach each other or separate along a path of movement oblique to saidclamps, said means including a link connected with one of said clamps, apivoted member connected tol the other of said clamps and having pivotalconnection with y said link at one end and means connected to the otherend of said pivoted member for imparting movement thereto,'as and forthe purpose set forth.

2. A device of the class described including two clamps disposed at anangle to each other,means for causing said clamps to approach each otheror separate along a path of movement oblique to said clamps, said meansincluding a link connected to one of said clamps, a lever having pivotalconnec-l tion with said link at one end, a movable.` rod carried by oneof said clamps and having pivotal connection with the other end of thelever whereby movement of said rod Wllimpart movement to the rlever andin turn impart movement to said clamps and means for holding said clampsin various adjusted positions.

3. In combination, a pair of. clamps arranged at a fixed angle to eachother, means for varying the distance between said clamps Withoutdisturbing said angle, vsaid means including superposed frames slidablyengaged with each other and projecting from said clamps into theincluded angle.

4. In combination, a pair of clamps arline transversely tothe first saidline ofV movement. f

6. In combination, a pair of overlapping body plates capableofrelativemovement in a right line, a clamp carried yby each of saidmembers,'bothv of the clamps having mem'- bers capable of independentmovement in right lines extending transversely to each other. f

In testimony whereof I ailix my signature.

ELSAMUR s. FRENCH;

